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You didn’t need to hear his words, because the picture spoke for itself. “Son, come on now.”

Opposite, a young fellow, perfectly coiffed, smiling, but with pursed lips, head cocked, and downing glass after glass of water. Why is he so thirsty?

As I tell my students and my clients, at least half of all rhetoric is nonverbal. We make judgments about each other long before we start processing words and arguments. The case study for presidential debates is of course 1960, when a tanned, rested, and ready Jack Kennedy won the TV viewers and an unwell, sweaty, fidgety Richard Nixon won the radio listeners. And lost the election.

Two debates in 2012 already present a new case study. This is truly amazing given how much time and money is now spent on preparing and coaching candidates, on “selling the president,” as Joe McGinnis famously wrote in his chronicle of how Nixon learned from 1960, deciding to hire a bunch of advertising men to make sure his image sold as well as his message in 1968.

Biden’s over-the-top nonverbals were in stark contrast to the lackluster performance by Obama in his first debate, where the president’s downcast note-taking conveyed the impression of a bored college professor. Or — a studious scholar? The other side of the nonverbal sword is that while these signals are powerful, they can be ambiguous.

Was the grinning, head-shaking Joe Biden a disappointed, dismissive father figure, or, as the Sean Hannitys of the world were tweeting, a drunk uncle at Thanksgiving dinner? Did Paul Ryan’s tight-lipped smirk display a smug overconfidence, or an attempt to merely tolerate a bunch of … malarkey?

How we read nonverbals, as with how we digest verbal argument, depends on the preconceptions we hold. But, as with any form of acting, a majority of critics are going to know a good performance when they see it. Politics is stagecraft, and the actors are coached on not just what to say but how to perform. My old boss, Frank Luntz, has a spot with Steven Colbert from a few years back where he points out the rhetorical impact of such bold gestures as taking off one’s eyeglasses, pausing and putting them back on. It may seem trite, but it has a nonverbal meaning that resonates. James Lipton, dean of the Actors’ Studio, has made political news in recent weeks in part by noting how Mitt Romney’s odd laugh extends only from his chin to his nose, and not upward to the eyes.

The difference with Joe Biden is that the laugh is full body. It is genuine. The camera had to pan to catch it all during the debate. As Lipton told Chris Matthews some weeks ago, the hardest thing for an actor to do is to laugh, and if you can’t do it right, stay away from it. Biden does not need to stay away from it.

At this point, maybe the vice president needs to be coaching the president on how to win a debate — without changing a word in the talking points.

Jonathan Riehl, J.D., Ph.D. is a communications consultant who has worked for congressional campaigns and nonprofit advocacy organizations. He is completing a book about the history of the modern conservative movement.

Readers' Comments (20)

Democrats can be excited about the "energy" Biden may have injected into the debate, but honestly he looked like a fool. Not only that--it was off-putting especially to women. At my exercise class this morning which was filled with what you would expect to be liberal-leaning women-they ALL talked about how inappropriate Joe Biden was. That was the only thing they gleaned from the entire debate, nothing else except that Ryan looked pretty good, not great but ok. I think this was the knock out punch Romney needed, and not because Ryan won the debate but only because Biden was so contemptuous.

Joe Biden was inaccurate on the facts and rude and unhinged in his delivery. If this behavior is red meat to the left, they have as little class as the Biden himself. For the record President Obama has far too much class to smile at the mention of our dead ambassador and the 3 other Americans and to interrupt Romney and Romney returned that courtesy. I give Ryan credit for not decking the moron who was constantly interrupting him and for the demeaning way Biden addressed him. The fact that Biden was not briefed and did not know that the attack on our consulate in Libya was a terrorist attack should be a concern for every American. Maybe he was getting his teeth whitened or his hair plugs styled because he sure was not doing his job! Biden did vote to authorize the war in Iraq yet he said he voted against it. This could be due to the onset of senility or maybe all the eye rolling cause his brain to rattle around in his head.

Biden was against the surge in Iraq, he was against the first gulf war and he was for the 2nd gulf war. This buffoon was wrong on just about everything to do with foreign policy and he set himself as some kind of an expert?

I am convinced that Joe Biden was selected as the VP because it is so scarey that he is one heartbeat away from the presidency that it was like an insurance policy for President Obama.

Granted body language does play a role, it should be substance and content, not style and "performace," that decides the winner of a debate. Substance seems to be getting overlooked in this cycle of debates by too many people.

Joe Biden wasn't going to let Paul Ryan get away with anything. When someone is lying it's hard to sit there and listen with a straight face and that was what Joe Biden's reactions were about. He cleaned Paul Ryan's clock and Republicans just didn't like it that's the bottom line. Had Paul Ryan done the same thing Republicans would be praising him for it. They live in a parallel universe of sheer hypocrisy and it doesn't go un-noticed by people. If Paul Ryan couldn't handle Joe Biden what would he do if God forbid they won he had to step into the role of president if should Romney not be able to fill that role? Paul Ryan is out of his league, he like Sarah Palin is not qualified to step into the role of president at a moments notice. Romney and Ryan both see themselves as running to become CEO's to run a company. The US is not a business and that's all they both see it as, taking care of the millioniares and the little people can fend for themselves, after all it's the likes of the Koch Bros etc who funded them to do their bidding if they got elected.

Jack Reacher wrote: "Fools are much easier to spot with the sound turned off!"..................................................Agreed, Jack.. Only people who had the sound turned off and didn't actually listen to the debate would be foolish enough to claim that Lyin' Ryan won.

Annola and The RealKingMax, if the case was that laughing was a defense mechanism for when someone was lying Ryan should have been rolling on the floor in hysterics! Biden Lies included:

Lie 1 - He and the President did not know that the attack in Libya was a terrorist attack for weeks. The congressional hearings just showed that the intelligence and state department people knew the night of the attack. Maybe democrats will believe that no one told the president (I find that totally implausible) that there was a terrorist attack that killed our Ambassador or maybe you can believe the president didn't care because his fund raiser in Las Vegas was more important. I can believe that no one told Biden because he is a buffoon and it would have been a waste of time.

Lie 2 - He said that Obama would only raise taxes on Millionaires when in fact they plan to raise taxes on people making $200K

Lie 3 - Catholic enterprises would not have to pay for birth control and abortion drugs. Obviously Biden didn't read the Obamacare bill either. Not surprised that the ginning idiot did not know what was in his own bill. Some should tell the Catholic Church since they are suing the Federal Government about this!

Lie 4 - Nuke for Iran. Biden obviously did not see the Netanyahu speech at the UN. Biden contradicted the Israeli President and if I had t call into question someone's credibility it would be Biden's.

Lie 5 - we will know if Iran is getting close to a nuke. This moron did not know the attack on on consulate in Libya was a terrorist attack for a week and he expects us to believe he will know then Iran is getting a nuke? I have ZERO faith in this idiot knowing anything.

I could go on an and on about the lies and misstatements made by our laughing fool of a VP but anyone who was proud of how this clown behaved in this public, or anyone who says that this was just Joe being Joe, shows the same low class as Biden did during this debate. I hate to say it but I am not surprised that the hard core democrats thought Biden's behavior was acceptable, they too have no class and as we know they support the failure Obama, so even their intellect also has to be called into question.

@ Mike Pell wrote: "Annola and The RealKingMax, if the case was that laughing was a defense mechanism for when someone was lying Ryan should have been rolling on the floor in hysterics!"...................................................Just for you, Mikey: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-21... ...................................................and this: http://www.opposingviews.com/i... WingerWorld

RealKingMin - one link didn't go anywhere and the other was not about the debate it was about the convention speech. No wonder you are a democrat and you thought Biden's performance was good, of the two links in your last post, one was non-existent (Like the Obama recovery) and one was inaccurate (like the Obama claims about reducing unemployment to 5.6% by now and his claim he was going to cut the deficit in 1/2).

@Mike Pell wrote:"RealKingMin - one link didn't go anywhere and the other was not about the debate it was about the convention speech. No wonder you are a democrat and you thought Biden's performance was good, of the two links in your last post, one was non-existent (Like the Obama recovery) and one was inaccurate (like the Obama claims about reducing unemployment to 5.6% by now and his claim he was going to cut the deficit in 1/2). "..................................................... Both links work fine, Mikey - operator error. Both links pointed out the depth of Lyin' Ryan's lyin' lies. To paraphrase you, no wonder you're a winger - you're extremely gullible and easily confused.

"404 Error - Page Not Found" this is what you get if you click on the Opposing Views link. Being smug and condescending is find if you actually know what you are talking about but you may want to reconsider it in this case. I actually do go to the links that people like you who have a liberal leanings direct me too because unlike every liberal I know I am actually interested in what the other side is saying. I have not met one democrat/ liberal who has actually watched Fox News or listened to Rush Limbaugh, but these same people will denigrate these outlets as lying or being dishonest.

I actually turn off 1/2 my brain and watch MSNBC because I enjoy the contortions and pretzel logic liberals have to use to justify their political positions and their support for President Obama. I am convinced that one has to eliminate all their ability to discern fact from fiction, suspend any measure of critical thinking, undergo a common sense lobotomy and then you can start to think like a liberal democrat. The liberals who post here, (even the ones who are too embarrassed to admit they are liberal) prove my point.

He might have left out Afghanistan from his convention speech, but Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is still getting the majority of the military vote.

According to The Military Times poll, 66 percent of service members are going to cast their vote for Romney, to just 26 percent for Obama. In 2008, when the current president was running against John McCain, only 23 percent of the service members surveyed said they were going to vote for him. McCain, a Vietnam war veteran, polled at 68 percent.

Out of the 3,100 service members surveyed 57 percent are going to be voting through an absentee ballot, which comes as no surprise considering that two thirds of those surveyed are on active-duty.

The interesting part of the poll is the issues that the service members based their vote on. When it came to the 2008 election, the most important issues were: